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Shadowing
Interview Refleciton After asking my interview questions, I learned a lot more than I expected. I had assumed that I knew most of what there is to know about having a career in law enforcement, but this interview proved me wrong. First of all, I assumed that it was a higher paying job. I didn’t expect much more, but I thought it would be at least around a yearly salary of $60,000. However, this does not dissuade me from my interest in this career field. Another thing I learned, and was surprised by, was that you don’t need anything higher than a high school diploma or GED in order to become a police officer. I had assumed you would at least need to go to college. I also did not know you had to be 21, I had been hoping to begin my career soon after I graduated high school. Hearing my interviewee talk about his job made me realize just how much he loves it. I could hear it in his voice, and the way he just kept going on about how many things you get to see and do. It made me very excited to begin having my own experiences in law enforcement. One more thing that surprised me was I didn’t realize how much of the job consisted of writing and reading police reports. I had always envisioned being a police officer as always being full of excitement and action, yet a lot of it is just sitting there and writing out reports on every little thing that happens, whether it’s just a traffic stop or something more serious. This interview made me seriously re-evaluate if I really want to be a police officer. I realized how dangerous and life-threatening this job can be. I also realized that if I want to go through with it, I will have to learn to open up a lot more, because the job requires a lot of communication with tons of people every day. I know that it will help me to break out of my shell and become more comfortable with talking to people, and it will help build my confidence just like it did with my mentor. Practicum Summary Kiera Ewings 18 April 2014 Senior Exit Project Tozer Practicum Summary For my Senior Exit Project, I shadowed a woman named Cindy Leyba. Cindy is both a 9-1-1 operator and dispatcher, which means that she not only takes 9-1-1 calls, she also dispatches police officers to the locations of the calls. My shadowing experience was extremely interesting and educational. The first day, I spent most of the time taking a tour and signing a lot of contracts, mostly to ensure that I would keep certain information confidential and that I would do what I was told. I spent half of my shadowing learning how to use all of the computers that the dispatchers and operators use, and the other half I was actually able to listen in on real 9-1-1 calls. Listening to the calls was both an exciting and a stressful experience. I learned that a lot of 9-1-1 calls are not serious calls, and that a lot of people are kind of crazy. There was one woman who called and said she wanted to talk to the President of the United States. Of course, Cindy said she could not do that, so the woman started crying and saying very random things, such as being stuck in the zoo and being in the unicorn. I found out later that the same woman calls about 2 or 3 times a week with different crazy scenarios. There were a few serious calls, and one of them was when a man was shot in a park. We got several calls in a row about the same event, and it was very interesting to hear the different takes on the exact same thing. Everyone said they saw or heard something different. The most frustrating thing about these calls is that once you hang up with the person, you have no idea what is happening afterwards. You just have to sit there and try to forget about the previous call, and move on to the next call. That was very hard for me to do, because I kept wondering if the man who was shot was okay. As I was nearing the end of my shadowing, we got a call and Cindy told me to answer it. I immediately felt a sense of panic, and my first thought was of the movie The Call, where a 9-1-1 operator is on the phone with a killer. Luckily, I did not have to deal with a murder. Instead, I was on the phone with a young girl who got in a violent fight with her mom and then was kicked out of her house. She was hysterical and didn’t know what to do or where to go. I attempted to calm her down, and once she had stopped crying I asked her where she was and if she had any friends or family that she could go to. At this point Cindy took over, which I was very grateful for because I was terrified that I would say the wrong thing and upset the girl even more. For my training, I went on ride alongs with two different patrol officers. My first ride-along was not very eventful, except for one call we got about a woman who was roaming around the house holding a knife and a baseball bat. When we got there, the officer calmed her down and convinced her to lower her weapons. Apparently the woman was legally blind and she thought she heard someone walking around the house. We checked all over the inside and outside of the house, and we could not find anyone. As the officers were talking to the woman, she turned to me and asked, “Why are you dressed like a hooker?” I was completely shocked, and I had no idea what to say or do. I would like to make it clear that I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and was most certainly not dressed in any provocative clothing. The officers asked her to turn her attention away from me, and I was told to go back to the car. Later, I heard them referring to her as a “number 6,” which is code for a crazy person. Overall, I had a very interesting experience with my shadowing and training. I definitely want to do something in law enforcement, although I am thinking of being a criminal psychologist instead of a police officer or a 9-1-1 operator. I would love to do the shadowing and training again sometime, because it was very educational for me.